onemind,
Lets overlook the mahayana section for arguments sake and discuss rebirth, nirvana and emptiness
After years of scientific study on meditation, it has shown to be extremely unreliable and can even worsen the effects of depression, anxiety and other mental disorders in some people with extreme cases ending in suicide.
To begin with, it is certainly true that there are many things in Buddhism which are difficult, if not impossible, to prove. The literal interpretation of rebirth is one of them. I know of no way in which to scientifically prove or verify that this phenomena is at all possible—all of the most convicing evidence I have seen in support of this possibility has been in the form of case studies and first-hand accounts. Nevertheless, rebirth is an important part of Buddhism. In Buddhist cosmology, there are said to be at least
thirty-one distinct realms of existence, and existence within the continual round of birth and death is suffering and bondage.
As for the nature of these realms, they are
generally treated as either external realms of existence where rebirth is possible due to the ripening of wholesome or unwholesome
kamma [it is said those with the divine eye (
dibba-cakkhu) can see these beings vanishing and reappearing] or experiences with no external location, i.e., they are mentally fabricated realities based upon wholesome or unwholesome
kamma. My personal belief is that rebirth into any of these realms is a possiblity; although, I am also open to the possibility that these are merely methaphorical descriptions of various pleasant and unpleasant mental states.
Pragmatically, I view
samara as the potential for the arising of human [mental] suffering, while I view
nibbana as the cessation of that potential. Nevertheless, according to Nyanatiloka's
Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines,
samara, literally "perpetual wandering," is "the unbroken chain of the five-fold
khandha-combinations, which, constantly changing from moment to moment follow continuously one upon the other through inconceivable periods of time;" although, the only empirical means of proof that I am aware of is the experience of past life memories that can arise from developing deep states of meditative absorption (
MN 39).
Honestly, I do not believe that rebirth can ever be scientifically disproven until science can at least find a way to rule out the possibility that consciousness can exist outside the body; because as Alan Wallace points out in an interview with Steve Paulson in
Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science & Religion, "This very notion that the mind must simply be an emergent property of the brain — consisting only of physical phenomena and nothing more — is not a testable hypothesis... Can you test the statement that there is nothing else going on apart from physical phenomena and their emergent properties? The answer is no."
Perhaps consciousness is simply a by-product of electrochemical processes in the brain, but perhaps there is another dimension to consciousness that science has yet to discover. Either way, another important point that is touched upon by Alan Wallace in the same interview is that, “If your sole access to the mind is by way of physical phenomena, then you have no way of testing whether all dimensions of the mind are necessarily contingent upon the brain.” Until science figures out a way to answer questions such as these, I am able to admit that I take certain concepts such as rebirth on faith—faith in the possibility that they are true.
Still, whatever your view of rebirth,
nibbana is first and foremost the cessation of [mental] stress and suffering. When asked, "What now is
nibbana?" by Jambukhadaka, Sariputta replied, "The destruction of lust, the destruction of hatred, the destruction of delusion: this, friend, is called
nibbana" (SN 38.1). It is also stated by the Buddha that
nibbana is "the highest bliss" (
Dhp. 204). Furthermore, this freedom from suffering is not contingent upon death. The Buddha himself realized
nibbana at the age of thirty-six, at which time he preceded to dedicate the remaining [forty-four] years of his life to teaching the path to the end of suffering.
As for the teachings on emptiness (
sunnata), my personal opinion is that they are often taken out of context, and coincidentally, far removed from their intended purpose. The view of emptiness that things have no inherent existence, while philosophically complex and seemingly implicit in the teachings on dependent co-arising, actually developed over time. As Thanissaro Bhikkhu explains, "emptiness is a mode of perception, a way of looking at experience" (
Emptiness). Moreover, "... the idea of emptiness as lack of inherent existence has very little to do with what the Buddha himself said about emptiness" (
The Integrity of Emptiness).
Finally, when it comes to meditation, it is certainly true that mentally unstable people can become even more mentally unstable due to certain meditation practices. That fact alone does not negate to potential benefits of meditation, just as the fact that certain drugs prescribed to mentally unstable individuals can actually increase the likelihood of suicide does not negate the potential benefits of such drugs. I am sure that there are studies which warn against such dangers, but I am equally as sure that there are others which state the benefits, e.g., the
study done by Dr. Paul Ekman at the University of California San Francisco Medical Centre.
Jason
